Jill and Jason's Starting Thread

[imme]

Is it hiding? What is it? Tentatively, Jill clears her throat. "Hello? She continues to move slowly toward the overturned bed.

[Laraqua]

Jill holds out her hands to feel her way forward in the utter darkness of the room. Without Jason's meager penlight, the darkness is total. She can hear the steady breathing of the children. She hears one stirring in her bed. She thinks it's Alice Cooper judging from the direction of it but she can't be sure. The thing in the corner moves. Hand slaps beat the linoleum as it passes by the window. She hears cloth and flesh drag against the floor.

Jason hears nothing through the sturdy toilet door. The cold bites into his skin, numbing his hands and causing the torch to tremble, the little circle of light wavering in his hands. Warm breath presses against the back of his neck.

[SuAside]

For a split second, two thoughts pierce Jason's brain: freeze, give up and embrace the darkness, or desperately hang on to this pitiful life of his, whatever little there is left.

Scared of what is to come, he choses the latter option. Ackwardly chilled he darts for the opposite side of the room, turning around in half flight, almost tripping over his own feet. Shaking now even more than before he shines the penlight to the corner he was standing in a splitsecond ago and he raises the screwdriver that he is now gripping so tightly that it hurts his fingers.

[Laraqua]

Jason reaches the other end of the cramped room by the time he had managed to spin around. There is nothing where he had once stood. He flashes the light at the gap between the two toilet cubicles, directly opposite where he had stood, but can't see inside that space where the sinks are located. The penlight illuminates the gap of the open door to the Men's Ward and the penlight seems to move over to it of it's own accord. If the Men's Ward door is open, does that mean the Children's Ward door is now locked? The chains are loose. The polyfiller lines are still there on the floor but obviously have not kept the door shut. Ash floats within the room.

[SuAside]

With his heart beating in his throat, Jason gathers his courage to approach the doors. Slowly and cautiously, inch by inch, he draws closer. His hand reaches for the Children's Ward door and slowly tries to see if it is open or closed.

[Laraqua]

Jason's eyes dart about, checking the doors are shut, the corners are empty. The sink alcove is empty. The mirror above the sink is cracked but it had always been that way. The handle to the Children's Ward slides down as though it weren't locked. Had both the locks been busted?

[SuAside]

Jason cautiously continues towards the open door that was once seperating the children's ward toilets from the men's ward toilets. He inspects that lock trying to see how it had gotten loose.

[Laraqua]

It seems as though the lock itself has been corroded by age. Both handle and lock are streaked in the yellows, golds and oranges of rust. The place where the locking mechanism enters the door frame has been completely disintegrated. The wooden door is pitted and warped, the cream paint flaking off in large strips. There is a vague glowing lump in the middle of the Men's Ward that makes the floating ash that seem to rise and fall on an unfelt breeze all the more eerie.

[SuAside]

Slowly doubt took the place of his fear. If the door had aged so fast, what about the others in the children's ward? Were they still there? Alive?

Jason had fled the children's ward, leaving everyone behind, but what if they now had left him behind for his cowardise? What use would it have to go on alone?

Trembling, he opened the children's ward door shining new light inside.

[imme]

Jill starts shaking in fear, but gulps and continues slowly moving toward the thing. Her steps are cautious and she waves her hands in front of her, trying not to trip over anything.

[Laraqua]

She inches forward, her knee banging against the edge of one of the beds, pushing it sideways, the wheels squeaking as she went. She heard a sharp intake of breath coming from somewhere in front of her and then the thing was rushing towards her.

[imme]

Jill takes a step back and hunches over, raising her arms before her face (her typical defensive posture).

[Laraqua]

She feels someone brush by her, knocking her sideways a few inches and into one of the beds which rolls sideways on its wheels. Footsteps run towards the door and she hears the chains jangle and start hitting the floor. Heavy, strained breathing can be heard from that direction, like a wounded animal being slowly strangled.

[imme]

Jill picks herself up out of the bed. "Hello? Who are you? You're safe in here. Calm down. My name's Jill." She sincerely hopes that she's guessing right, and this is some scared person from the hallway and not ... well, and not something else.

[Laraqua]

The doors are swung open. She can hear them move and the figure is running off down the hall, just as the toilet door opens and Jason's penlight reappears. At least, she believes it's Jason, the light's glare is too much for her now adjusted eyes to see past, although it does once more allow her to see the lay-out of the room. The double doors at the other end are now stood wide open.

[SuAside]

Jason enters the room and quickly swings his flashlight to get an idea of his surroundings. He sees Jill, but no sign of what startled him in the first place.

"Is it gone?" he asks, more to reassure himself than to actually receive an answer.

"The seperation door between both toilets has 'decayed'." he then says, simply sharing information "It's open now."

He then walks to the disturbed bed(s) to see if there was a patient in it, and if so, if he/she is alright.

[imme]

"Yeah, it is. I think it ripped off the chains on the doors." Her voice is full of disbelief. "I'm going to see what I can do to rechain these doors. I vaguely remember that I have some bags with supplies in them. Could you help me find them and then we could try to patch up the other door as well? Whatever that was, I don't want it to come back." She shudders and moves to close the doors.

[SuAside]

Jason briefly shines the light to where the bags used to be and probably still are, but then his attention goes back to the beds that were shoved aside.

[Laraqua]

The child's feet are visible from where they stand but the rest of the child is hidden from view due to the nearest bed. If either of them squatted or moved aside, they would be able to see the fallen child better. One of the other children, the one nearest to the doors, begins to cough and sits up in her bed.

Jill's bags are in the corner of the room, on Jill's right, only a few feet from the double doors.

[SuAside]

Jason moves around the beds and gets closer to see if the child is alright.